Forever Far Away
by Juxtaposie
Summary: Part 3. Soccoro. Izumi knows, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that she will be dead before the month is out.
1. Forever Far Away

_**Forever, Far Away**_

_He leaves his soul in that big house on the hill, where his wife waits forever. Forever is simply too far away to reach.__**  
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She is young. She has no one: no family, few friends. She is alone. She has a gentle smile, and a prettiness about her that even the simplest of clothes cannot hide. She is afraid of disappointing him, because she knows he has been married before. She is afraid that he will be measuring her against his first wife, and that he will find her lacking.

He feels so very old when he sees the youth shining in her round eyes, and yet with her he feels everything as if it were new. He has been alone many, many years. He is handsome, huge, and shy all at once if she is in the room. He is afraid of disappointing her because he knows that she knows he has been married before. He is afraid because he knows that nothing can last forever: forever is simply too far away to reach.

She cries as she says "I do," and then again when he repeats the words. He thinks she is amazing, like something from out of a fairytale. It's been centuries since he has read about princesses and heroes.

He is so _very_ careful that night: careful not to hurt her, careful to hide the few patches of rot growing along his spine, careful to remember everything just as it is in that single moment when nothing matters except how she makes him feel. He feels everything as if it were new, with her.

"Trisha," she remembers him scolding gently, when he wakes to find that she hasn't bothered to sleep in and has instead made breakfast. He pulls her back into the bedroom, back into the warmth of the bed, and all of the food is stone cold by the time they can pull themselves out again.

She births a son early in their second year together. He wonders if he has ever been so simply, completely, and genuinely happy before. Fourteen months later, a second son follows. He knows he has everything he could possibly want, and he prays the day will never come when he will have to give it up.

He leaves as soon as Alphonse has learned to walk. He leaves her in tears, and with more than enough money to keep her and his boys comfortable for many years. He leaves his soul in that big house on the hill, where his wife waits forever. Forever is simply too far away to reach.

_Fin.  
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AN - I got bored one day and realized that there is not a single marriage in all of Fullmetal Alchemist that ends with the couple growing old toegther. Dante and Hohenheim. Trisha and Hohenheim. Maes and Gracia. Izumi and Sig. May add more chapters if the idea continues to plague me. 


	2. Small Things

**Small Things**

_She knows suddenly, and with only a small amount of surprise, that her life is over. She doesn't want to do anything without Maes. _

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Gracia is standing in the doorway of their bedroom – _her_ bedroom, now- when she begins to cry. The late afternoon sun falling across the empty bed is what finally does her in, and the pictures of him, of their happy little family, smiling from behind glass on every surface in the room. 

Her cheeks are wet as she sits down on her side of the bed – though it's only _her_ bed now, really – and unbuckles her shoes. Numb, clumsy fingers work loose the buttons on her black dress, bought yesterday in haste. It doesn't fit her well. She unhooks her garters, and rolls her stockings down, and pushes everything out of sight under the bed, where she won't have to look at any of it.

She lays down in her slip, across the bed, and pulls Maes' pillow out from under the tucked-in fold of maroon blanket. She had made the bed that morning, in an absurd fit of tidiness. She buries her face in his pillow, and then because she thinks it might make her feel better, she screams.

The pillow swallows the sound, because Elysia is asleep down the hall, and Gracia just feels more isolated. She sobs. Maes is everywhere but where he needs to be. She can smell him on the sheets, his clothes hang in her closet, and she is alone. One of his house shoes is by the bedroom door, and the other is downstairs under the sofa. There is a roll of undeveloped film in his camera, which is still sitting on the kitchen table. His razor is laying in the sink. She remembers these small things acutely, and thinks of them briefly as she realizes she will have to put them straight, and she cries harder.

She knows suddenly, and with only a small amount of surprise, that her life is over. She is a widow now, not a wife, and even being a mother doesn't seem so important that she should want to do it without Maes. She doesn't want to do anything without Maes.

When the pillow is soaked and her chest feels cold and empty she falls asleep.

Elysia wakes her, hours later in the dark night, when she crawls into the big, cold bed. Gracia shifts, and pulls the covers back, and they share Maes' pillow when they curl up together. Gracia strokes her little girl's hair, and watches her husband's picture on the nightstand until the light of the new day reflects off the glass.

_Fin

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AN: Grief isn't nice. I was trying to make myself cry. Poor Gracia. Poor Elysia. Poor Maes. sniffle


	3. Soccoro

**Soccoro**

_Izumi knows, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that she will be dead before the month is out._

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Izumi knows, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that she will be dead before the month is out. She can sit up on her worst days, and make it as far as the front door on her best. She can feel her body shutting down. Her feet are always numb when she wakes up, and her fingers fumble over buttons and the pages of books. 

For months Al has shadowed her, listened and related to her. On some days, when she couldn't get up, he would drag a chair up to her bedside, and together they would lay books out on the bed, around her legs, and study alchemic arrays and equations. Now he is gone, and the house is quiet. Earlier in the week Sig had carried her outside so she could wave him off. She knows she won't see the Elric brothers again in this lifetime.

She isn't afraid anymore. The fear has long since been replaced by a deep, knowing regret that she will leave her husband with a cold bed and an empty house. She watches him, watching her. She knows she is growing thin and pale, and knows that it hurts him beyond words to see.

_No coffin_, she says one night when he has laid down beside her. N_o clothing. No nothing. Just wrap me in white linen and lay me in the ground._

He listens mutely, and nods when she is through. Then, with a gentleness that has always amazed her, he gathers her up against him and begins to cry. He doesn't shake or sob or give any indication that he is anything but all right, but she can feel the wetness against her temple.

_Fin

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AN: And that wraps up this depressing little trilogy about married couples who don't get to grow old together. Almost made myself cry again. I'm a wuss... Poor Sig...


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